I Want to Ride on a Spaceship
by Wendymypooh
Summary: Daniel Bernstein's excitement over the arrival of the Visitors to Earth, is not shared by the rest of the members of his family.


Daniel Bernstein watched in intense fascination as Mike Donovan's exclusive footage of the underside of the gigantic Mothership in its stationary position over New York City, was broadcast on various television stations.

"Wow! Look at that! Did you see how close they got to the UFO? I wish I could have been in that helicopter with Mike Donovan when he was filming those shots!" He exclaimed.

All his life he had been waiting for something exciting to happen to him...and now it finally was!. Who would have thought that UFO's and aliens really existed? Of course, he had heard about folks claiming that they had seen UFO's, but no one really believed those reports. He had just assumed those people were media attention seekers or kooks. He certainly thought differently now that he had witnessed a sighting himself.

His dark eyes widened as he continued watching the footage as it showed the silver spherical craft from various angles, and Dan Rather read off a list of specifications Donovan had included with his video.

"Five miles in diameter? Wow, that's huge! Did you hear that Dad?"

"I heard Daniel." Stanley Bernstein didn't share his son's excitement over the massive alien ships sudden appearance in several major cities all over the world.

He was worried. He didn't know whether the extra-terrestrials really came in peace or not. Just their appearing in the skies overhead had Los Angeles in chaos. The streets were jammed with people trying to flee the city. Dan Rather had reported that hospitals were jumping with an influx of people suffering from heart attacks, anxiety issues, and suicide attempts.

"Maybe we should leave the city?" Lynn Bernstein suggested from her place beside him.

"No!" Stanley said sharply. He turned toward her and his tone softened, as he took in the worried expression in her beautiful features, and the nervous way she was wringing her hands. "There is no place for us to go and we would only be adding to the chaos already going on in the streets. Besides, the President has asked us not to panic, right Father?"

The older Bernstein stared at the flashing scenes playing out on the television screen before him. Abraham remembered another time when an invading force had crossed over into his homeland. That one had been human, incredibly cruel, and deadly. In the end, Hitler and his Nazis had been stopped, but not until 11,000,0000 of his fellow Jews were killed.

Abraham wished he could share his grandson's enthusiasm at the appearance of Earth's new visitors, but he couldn't. Past experience had taught him to be wary of newcomers professing peace and good will, regardless if they were human or not. He didn't want to contemplate what mass terror and destruction an alien force with advance technology and weaponry could wreak on humanity.

"I wonder if there is any place we could hide, even if we managed to leave Los Angeles." Abraham remarked. "Even the Germans did not have ships such as this."

'Father!" Stanley said reprovingly, patting Lynn's leg soothingly as she let out a distressed sound in response to his father's remarks. "Talk like that doesn't help."

The events of World War 2, and the suffering his parents had endured at the hands of the Nazis, had left his father with lifelong emotional scars. He could not pretend to know the depth of those scars on his father and everyone else who had been fortunate to live through Hitler's cruelty.

Suddenly, all of their attention was riveted back onto the television as a hoarse Dan Rather reported the latest developments with their visiting extra-terrestrials. "Yes, reports are flooding in from all over the world. Rio de Janeiro...Rome...Moscow...London...A Mysterious tone is being heard emanating from the spacecraft hanging over all those cities."

As if their ears had suddenly been unplugged, the Bernsteins now heard an odd, pulsing signal emanating simultaneously from their television and outside their residence. While they listened, the tone changed suddenly into a strange resonating voice. "Twenty...nineteen...eighteen..."

As the alien voice continued its countdown, Dan Rather explained that the voice was being heard all over the world, spoken in the native tongue of each country.

"Citizens of the planet Earth...we bring you greetings. We come in peace."

Daniel felt his excitement grow as he listened to the odd voice request a meeting with the United States Secretary General on top of the United Nations building in New York City for eight o'clock that evening, Greenwich Mean Time.

What he wouldn't give to be at that meeting between the Secretary General and the alien would it be like to shake hands with an E.T.? Would the leader look human like them or be three foot tall with a bulbous head, and beady black eyes? He wondered if the Secretary General would be invited aboard the UFO?

Many more questions raced through his head as he stared at the screen and listened to Dan Rather fill them in on the detailed plans that were being put into place to secure the Secretary General's safety during the meeting and how members of the media were being selected to cover the event of the century.

"Isn't this great?" Daniel turned to flash and ecstatic smiled at his parents. "Man, I wish I could be there! It would be so cool to ride in a spaceship! Imagine getting to meet a real live alien in person? Isn't this great?"

"Yeah, great." Stanley's response was less than enthused.

He would hold off his opinion regarding Earth's visitors until they proved whether they were trustworthy or not.


End file.
